Be Sure To Watch The Miles On Your Next Rental Vehicle

The days of free unlimited miles are long since past and for many car rental companies this method of making some money is working really well for them. Most people have been trained that when they are renting a vehicle for around town use that unlimited mileage applies, mean essentially that as long as they stay within a certain radius from the vehicle rental location that they can drive as much or as little as they want with no extra charge.

Unlimited mileage is the way that most all major car rental companies used to do business, but lately they have had to find new ways to reclaim the costs associated with a slow economy. They now are charging for every mile added to the odometer and is the best of cases are only offering a very limited number of free miles with a rental. These changes are helping the rental companies in several ways.

For rental companies this is bringing an additional revenue source and as incompetent as it might appear, many individuals fail to understand the impact of over mileage charges until they are at the counter, returning the vehicle and have a severe case of return shock. Rental companies know that this is a great time to add extra charges to the bill because the car has already been used and the miles added.

Over the mile charges are deceptively serving to keep the base rate of renting a car much lower and give the impression that the rental company is being very competitive. But the facts show that the charges for these overages vary greatly from company to company. This is a successful way to appear to offer a lower expense alternative to other usual forms of ground transportation and at the end of the rental agreement, most customers are hit with their most recent expense surprise.

Too many customers are in a hurry to rent a vehicle that they usually forget to ask some very important questions in the rental agreement they must sign. These questions will help them avoid return cost shock as well as give them an ideal of what the true overall cost of the rental will be, so they can decide if it is the best option for them or if they should consider another option before spending money that will train wreck their budget. Every renter should know roughly how many miles they will add to the vehicle during their rental time as well as what the normal mileage rates are and what the rates for each mile that is consider to be overage will be. If you are inquiring about a rental, all these questions can be answered by a representative, before you reserve the vehicle and you will have a better ideal of the afford ability of the rental or the company associated with the rental. This is just good common sense and research at work and will help you find the really good deal for a rental.